Born of Fire
Interview With Steve Dorssom
MG:Hey great to meet you!
Steve -Great to meet you too and thank you for the interview.
MG: Can you give me brief history of Born of Fire
Steve - BOF was created back in 1998 and did the 1999 Maiden America tribute CD followed up by the full length “Transformation” CD in 2000, then we went back into the studio in 2001 to do a 3 song EP that we used to shop for a major record deal. While strong negotiations were going on between Capital Records & BOF, we were invited by WW-3 Records to do a track for the Black Sabbath Tribute CD which we did “Heaven & Hell”. Right after the US tragedy of 9-11 no labels were signing bands anymore, our A&R contacts at Capital Records were now gone and things just drifted apart. Life happens and we just went on a long break…..that long break lasted about 10 years.
In 2012 we reunited to do a best of BOF record with No Remorse Records featuring all of our previously recorded music called “Anthology”. During our 10 year break our guitarist Bobby had built his own recording studio and really polished his skills in studio recording & mixing. At the same time I got into film making, directing and acting. With all these skills in house now we decided to produce, film and direct our very first music video for the popular song off the “Anthology” record “In The End”. This really took off well with the fans so much that we decided that we have some un-finished business and wanted to write and record a brand new record. This time we wanted to record it in Bobby’s studio with him taking the lead on engineering and being the studio Producer (its in his blood, Bob grew up in his dads recording studio as a kid).
As we were in the middle of writing and recording the new record the summer of 2014 we had a fall out with our vocalist which forced us to cut ties with him and move on with finishing our record but we had to find a new vocalist first & another record label all at the same time. Then literally 2 days later magic happened…..We met Gordon our current vocalist and he fit us perfectly. We knew we had great songs put together and we just needed the right vocalist and boy did we find him. The dude is amazing! We have so much in common, we get along great and now we are best friends and business partners.
Such a blessing! Then we brought our new Bass player on board Michael Wolff who is a multi talented, extremely cool dude that fits us perfectly. We put together a great demo and promo package and shopped it. We ended up inking a deal with Pure Steel Records 60 days later. Now we have overcome all of our obstacles, up’s & down’s and have put together a killer line up with an amazing new record that we feel the fans are going to love. We want to bring a new flavor to power metal and i think we accomplished that.
MG: Why the album title "Dead Winter Sun”
Steve - When our new vocalist Gordon dug into all of the songs we have, he did a great job with the titles, lyrics etc. “Dead Winter Sun” was the second song we tracked with Gordon and later on after going through several album title suggestions we all felt that “Dead Winter Sun” would be a great album title as well as some visual concept ideas for the cover. We also filmed and directed our own music video for this title track as well. So its somewhat of a concept idea with the album cover, album title, title track song and the music video….it all ties together.
MG: Do you have a personal favourite track on the new album and why ?
Steve - Well everyday it seems i have a new favorite track. I really like all of them. We carefully crafted these songs in the studio with the fans & listeners in mind. Our goal was to capture their attention and take them on a musical journey. Right now my favorite track is “When Hope Dies” It tells the perfect story of the world we live in today! Government, Media lies!, humans destroying the earth….. lets face it….todays world we live in sucks! Look at our album cover and see how we feel.
We are a US band…..ha ha. But seriously it has a global meaning and its not just the fall of the US government.
MG: The Album cover is interesting can you tell me a bit about it and did you have any input into its design
Steve - The album cover was done by Kostas Tsiakos. To get to the point we are at with the current cover was also quiet a feat. We had to go through a previous artist before we could come up with a good impacting cover. Once Kostas was brought on board, Gordon & I brainstormed the concept direction and proposed it to Kostas and from that point the full band provided input and crafted in to completion. We are really happy with the cover, color tones and the bold impact it has.
Kostas knocked one out of the park for us. The over all concept is whats inevitable that this world is coming too…….
MG: What inspires Born of Fire ?
Steve - I think what inspires us as a group is that we have some un-finished business to take care of. We want the world to really see and hear who Born Of Fire is. We just came up a day late and dollar short in the past but now its different, we are more than ready to take this on with a vengeance!
MG:Plans for the rest of the year and what will 2015 bring ?
Steve - For the rest of the year we will be promoting our new record really heavy and we will be launching our new web store where you can choose from 4 different style BOF shirts, mens & women’s apparel, embroidered logo patches, autographed CD’s and we have branded our own Hot Sauce. “Born Of Fire Heavy Metal Hot Sauce” we think the fans will love it! For 2015 we will have our full album released on vinyl in Feb and we will also be releasing our next music video “Tears” to help support the new release. This video is a jaw dropper and I can’t wait to release it to the world.
MG: What are your personal Musical Influences
Steve - Everyones influences may have some common ground but each one of us has our own taste for things as well. Me personally growing up I loved Iron Maiden, WASP, Scorpions, Metallica, Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Queenryche (but nothing after operation mind crime), Flotsam & Jetsam, Sacred Reich to name a few.
MG: Can you tell me what you have been listening to recently
Steve - Most recently I am really getting into King Diamond again. But being locked in the studio for this last year i shut down my listening to other bands for a while to focus on our project.
MG: Best and worst things about touring
Steve - Well I haven’t been lucky enough to have spent a whole lot of time doing that unfortunately. But my good friend Greg Hall from Sacred Reich told me ……..”When I am at home I can’t wait to go on tour…….When i am on tour, i can’t wait to get home”
I would really love to travel the world and share our music with everyone. Hopefully many 2015 festivals will be booked soon!!!!
MG:Please describe Born of Fire in four words!
Steve - Sophisticated Veterans of Metal
MG:Finally, anything to say to our fans and your listeners
Steve - Thank you so much for all your support! We hope you love the new album and new music videos we did. We did it for all of you the fans….... Your enjoyment is our fulfillment. Pick up the new record when it comes out Nov 14th on Pure Steel Records and let us take you on a musical journey. Fans can pre-order the new CD at the Pure Steel web store and for the first 50 fans to order the CD, they will receive a FREE Born Of Fire embroidered logo patch.
Also fans can visit our web store on the BOF web site www.BornOfFireusa.com to check out all of our our cool merchandise that goes on sale starting Oct-31
Thank you all for supporting our new release. Without you the fans none of this would be possible.
Interview : Seb Di Gatto BORN OF FIRE ALBUM REVIEW